Orlando Builder Attacked, Killed On Job In Iraq

A year ago Joseph James Wemple saw an opportunity he couldn't resist: He would help rebuild Iraq and at the same time empower people who knew nothing about freedom.

The decision to go to Iraq and improve that country cost the College Park man his life Wednesday, when he and his boss were ambushed, shot and killed by masked men outside Baghdad.

Wemple, a longtime manager of Disney World building projects, knew all about constructing tourist attractions and refurbishing resorts here, but Iraq presented a unique challenge.

"He wanted to rebuild a country, not just a building," Wemple's brother Bruce said Monday. "He was over there for the people."

Joseph Wemple, 49, was scheduled to come home to Central Florida late last week to be with his longtime partner, Debra Mize, and their 5-year-old son, Matthew, for the holidays.

Bruce Wemple said his nephew, eager to be a builder like his dad, had been talking about going to Home Depot for supplies so he and his father could build a sleigh together.

Bruce Wemple said the family is trying to plan for a memorial service and funeral, but they are unsure when Joseph's body will arrive.

After Joseph Wemple landed in Iraq in April, he became consumed with the work there -- and the people, too.

He sent e-mails home saying he never felt more alive doing his work, knowing he had a "lock" on his job "because no one else wants it."

"Joe was always defending the Iraqi people and especially the Iraqi children," Bruce Wemple said. "Joe knew the risk. He just honestly felt the good outweighed the bad in Iraq."

Through the engineering-construction contractor CLI USA, Wemple, as CLI's project manager, helped refurbish and "westernize" the Iraqi Ministry of Defense annex facility, which became headquarters for the coalition forces, company officials said.

Then he devised a mazelike barricade system for an Iraqi police-training facility, which was later copied as a better way to secure and protect bases.

During his time in Iraq, he lived outside the highly protected Green Zone and among Iraqi citizens. This earned him respect with Iraqis, and in turn, they started working for him by the dozens, his brother and others said.

William Irey, president of Frank Irey Construction, a major Disney contractor, helped Wemple get the CLI job.

"I said, `Joe, why do you want to do this?' " William Irey said. "He said, `September 11. [President] Bush did a good job clearing the terrorists out of Afghanistan. This is the next step.' "

Irey, whose brother is CEO and board chairman for CLI, said Wemple told him that if Iraqis were out working with Americans and earning for their families, they would be less inclined to come here and hurt Americans.

"This was his way of serving his country and helping to protect his family," Irey said.

Irey acknowledged that Joseph Wemple took risks. He explained one instance when Wemple continued working on a crane lifting concrete panels while mortar shells were fired around him.

"He was picking up all kinds of work over there because he could get it done," Irey said. "But it cost him his life."

Wemple was just about to start work on CLI's latest project, retrofitting a facility in Taji, north of Baghdad, so it could refurbish Soviet-era armored vehicles for the Iraqi civil-defense force.

He was returning from the Taji job site Wednesday with Dale Stoffel, CLI's vice president for international development. That's when they were ambushed and killed, Irey said.

"Were they targeted or was it random?" Irey asked. "I don't know. I don't know if we'll ever know."

Meanwhile, Mize is left trying to explain to a 5-year-old boy why his father won't be building a sleigh with him this Christmas.

"He does know the ultimate goal in life is to go to heaven," Mize said. "I told him God needed a good builder, and he called on dad."